Alekhine Memorial Round 2

Round two of the Alekhine Memorial proved to be every bit as exciting as the opening round, with three more decisive games to thrill the chess fans watching in the Louvre, and online around the world.

Ding Liren had defeated Lev Aronian in the biggest shock result of the first round, but he was crushed brilliantly by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in round two. The Chinese player's dark squared bishop never moved from f8 where it was trapped for most of the game!

Another man to suffer a reversal of fortune was Vladimir Kramnik. After winning beautifully on the opening day, the Russian lost to Lev Aronian in round two. Kramnik played the Semi-Tarrasch, which he had used to beat Aronian in the Candidates Tournament in March. This time Aronian varied first with 6.e4 and won an excellent game.

However, the clear leader after two rounds is Mickey Adams. After taking the scalp of the world champion yesterday, the veteran English grandmaster defeated Peter Svidler in fine style to lead with a perfect start of 2 points from 2 games.

Tournament leader Michael Adams

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Peter Svidler offers his hand in resignation

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.Vladimir Kramnik lost to Lev Aronian

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The closing moments of Aronian's victory

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.Maxime Vachier-Lagrave crushed Ding Liren's Caro-Kann defence

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What a difference a day makes...Ding Liren suffered horribly

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World champion Vishy Anand drew with Nikita Vitiugov

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Laurent Fressinet drew with Boris Gelfand

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.The Alekhine Memorial Standings after 2 rounds

1

Michael Adams

ENG

2727

2

2

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

FRA

2722

1½

3

Laurent Fressinet

FRA

2706

1

4

Ding Liren

CHN

2707

1

5

Levon Aronian

ARM

2809

1

6

Boris Gelfand

ISR

2739

1

7

Vladimir Kramnik

RUS

2801

1

8

Peter Svidler

RUS

2747

½

9

Vishy Anand

IND

2783

½

10

Nikita Vitiugov

RUS

2712

½

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The Alekhine Memorial takes place from 21 April - 1 May. The official site can be found here, with live game analysis here and video commentary here. Archived videos are here.

The tournament is a 10-player single round robin competition, with the first half held in the Louvre in Paris and the second half in the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg.

The time control is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, then 15 minutes to a finish with a 30 second increment from the start. No draw offers are allowed until after 40 moves have been played. The prize fund is €100,000 with €30,000 for first place.

All rounds start at 14:00 local time (12:00 UTC when in Paris, 10:00 UTC when in St. Petersburg), except the last round which is 1 hour earlier.

Hozzászólások

TALminator: While 25...Qxa2 is a possibility indeed, it comes with its own set of headaches, e.g., 25...Qxa2 26.Qg5 f6 (not 26...Rd7? 27.Rc1, and the white rook invades the 8th rank) 27.exf6, and black's king cover quickly dwindles, creating a constant need for defense, so any pawns on the other side of the board would be decorative but not helpful in the presence of heavy pieces that can attack the king. It's likely still defensible, but arguable no better than what he actually chose.

When someone like Aronian leaves a pawn undefended, it's rarely "free" -- and in this case he had apparently calculated it correctly too.

Great game by V-L, even Houdini did not give the correct evaluation of the position.

And also great game by Aronian, it is never easy to outplay such a positional player like Kramnik in his own style. Maybe Kramnik should not trade the bishop for the knight. Well, if Aronian managed to do it in the Candidates Tournament, he would have challenged Anand. I think Aronian is the most vivid player, if he does not make many errors or go to over-complicated line, he can be the world champion.

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